Thinking About Mental Health in 2014

An excerpt from Dr. Insel at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) on “Thinking About 2014” blogpost:

This year, let’s remember that, as in the rest of medicine, we need to know more if we want to do better. Current diagnostic systems, based on symptoms and not biomarkers, are not good enough. Providing access to current treatments is necessary but not sufficient. For too many people, current treatments are not good enough—an inconvenient truth for those with cancer, dementia, and, yes, mental illness as well. Unless the nation invests in research, we will not have anything better to offer. We have understood the need to invest in research for cancer and we have recently recognized the need for a deeper understanding, better diagnostics, and effective treatments for dementia. Is 2014 the time to recognize that, as with so many other areas of medicine, we need to focus on science as well as service for those with mental illness?